Swytch Battery

[ratumfratum]

Hi everyone, I'm a new member and this is my first post.
A couple of years ago I bought a Swytch kit. After some initial problems, it's been ok. I've only done about 400 miles with it.
Last week I went to charge it but when I plugged the charger into the battery there were a couple of sparks between the battery connector and the charger connector. The light on the charger went off. I disconnected the cables and the charger light came back on. I tried this a couple of times with the same result. I had a spare charger, again same results.
I contacted Swytch but as the product was out of warranty there was "little they could do in the way of support, but as a valued customer I can buy another battery from them"
Yeah, right!
I only wanted a bit of technical advice, I wasn't after a free replacement.
Any ideas what this problem could be?
Thanks in anticipation of help.

 

[Zebb]

The sparks at the point of connection charger and battery are normal and nothing of concern... Are you saying its not charging at all.? At what state was the battery left.. Ie fully charged or flat..?

 

[vfr400]

For most Chinese stuff, you have to switch on the charger before plugging in so that the charge lead is near the voltage of the battery. If you don't switch it on first, you get sparks and a risk of blowing a fuse.

The first thing you have to do is get a meter to check the voltage on the battery's charge socket and the charger jack. if you have the 5.5mm type jack charge socket, be very careful not to short the central pin to the blade down the edge, which are the two points of contact for measurement, and make ssure that you don't let your probes touch each other.

Those two measurements will tell you where the problem is, otherwise you'll just be guessing.

 

[ratumfratum]

The sparks at the point of connection charger and battery are normal and nothing of concern... Are you saying its not charging at all.? At what state was the battery left.. Ie fully charged or flat..?

Hi Zebb, thanks for the response. It's not charging, as soon as I connect the charger to the battery the light on the charger goes off. The battery was left at about 2O% before I tried to charge it. Re the sparking, it never used to do that, it's only since I've had this problem.

 

[ratumfratum]

For most Chinese stuff, you have to switch on the charger before plugging in so that the charge lead is near the voltage of the battery. If you don't switch it on first, you get sparks and a risk of blowing a fuse.

The first thing you have to do is get a meter to check the voltage on the battery's charge socket and the charger jack. if you have the 5.5mm type jack charge socket, be very careful not to short the central pin to the blade down the edge, which are the two points of contact for measurement, and make ssure that you don't let your probes touch each other.

Those two measurements will tell you where the problem is, otherwise you'll just be guessing.

Hi vfr4, thanks for the response. I don't have any testing equipment but I'll take the stuff to a shop that can do this. Cheers

 

[Zebb]

How long was it left at 20%.? Really it should be left at min 50% if the voltage of each cell drops to much it will kill it... Maybe try just leaving the charger in for a long while. However do not leave unattended, maybe on garage floor, see if battery management system brings it back... But don't leave batterys that low for long period of time..

I stress not to leave unattended.. In case of